I watched you hold a rose yesterday and saw it grow
ugly and wither, shamed by its failure to compare.

The floor of my heart is covered with the leaves
that have fallen in their prime for no other reason
than the chance to brush against your face as you
walk through the realm you now inhabit freely.
Out of desert sands, Eden has been reborn full
of life and colour, all yours to name and use as you
please - most beloved of creation under heaven.

Even the threads of the sun, which one would be
foolish to say could be dimmed by anything else,
never look so lovely as when they fall on you and, like
through a crystal, are weaved into a tapestry of rainbow.
Bands of light twirl and spin, bringing into awareness
corners of reality the normal spectrum can not illuminate,
whispering of possibilities that escaped my imagination.

No matter our paths, or how the years shape us,
your realm is secure, where roses don’t dare to grow.

Steven McKennon

Hiding in the shadows just around the next curve in the
road is the empty space I thought was floating face
down in a ditch with my morality and sense of direction.
A roadster won’t go fast enough to keep it from trying to
hop in the passenger seat at 80 mph, or following like a shadow
when I eat, drink and prowl, just close enough to be noticed.

The percentage of nothing I now live in where all your
dreams come true is only a little bit to the left of where
memories are alive of a beautiful lie wearing a filthy dress.
Click your ruby slippers and say, “there’s no place like home”,
Dorothy, but when you open your eyes don’t be surprised if
Auntie Em already wrote you off and rented out your room.

Just like the remnants of a trip are washed away in the shower
when the suds pull even the feel of the seat down the drain,
any lasting trace of my presence here has long since gurgled away.
A bit like a roadster, which is but an enjoyable diversion that will
serve its use and end up on a junk heap next to Volkswagens
and other abandoned toss offs that are no longer wanted.

Steve McKennon
Inspired by Cathy Heller’s drawing “End of a Bug’s Life”